Overwhelmed!

Okay, so that title can be a little misleading.  I am not meaning it in the commonly assumed negative connotation.  But in that I am overwhelmed = overcome completely in mind and feeling.  As I am experiencing this feeling this week it is in a completely affirming and positive way.

As many of you know I have been planning for several years to go to the Philippines to teach English.  Along the way I have been open to the idea that God used that sense of calling as a way to motivate me back into school and the field of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), but not necessarily to the specific place I was imagining all those years ago back in 2010.  Since then I have completed my BS in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on intercultural communications and TESOL and now I am halfway through an MA in TESOL.  I have also maintained contact with the friends I made on Bohol.

As I was graduating, in 2015 I thought perhaps God was calling me to Romania instead as a very specific opportunity laid itself at my feet.  Over the course of several months God made it clear that was not where he wanted me.  Instead I took a position locally teaching English through AmeriCorps.  It was a great growth and learning opportunity, but also not where I was feeling led for the long term.  Then this past December/January I was able to revisit my friends on Bohol and talk about the plans.  Since that time I have been a bit dazed at the possibilities.  I won't bore you with anymore details, but things are no longer just thoughts and plans.  This is becoming a reality!

As of last week Friday I have been officially welcomed in the Commission to Every Nation (CTEN) family!  It has only been 4 days, but I have felt incredibly welcomed by this family.  They are the US based organization that will help me through the process of raising funds, preparing to depart, and mentoring along the way even after I'm overseas.  This does not mean I don't need my other families as well, they are just joining my crew :)  I will still need to lean on my biological and church families as well as the many friends who are standing with me in this process.

I am still in that state of being overwhelmed so my thoughts are not completely collected, but this means some really great things are going to be happening in the next couple of weeks.  We are working on setting things up, but if you have just been waiting for the tax-deductible convenience before donating to this ministry now is your chance!  You can give as easily as going to this site: http://cten.org/christinedavenport/  As of right now that is a way to give online if you are in the US.  In the near future there will also be a short blurb about the ministry on that same page.  If you are not keen on online giving, please keep your eyes on the left side of my blog in the coming weeks you will find a resource link titled "Funding the Mission."  It will include how to mail or call in donations as well as information if you are Canadian :)

And now for some more of the much anticipated photos of my recent visit.

 The Cajigas' balcony where the kids like to hang out and play or read books.

 The yard looking out from the balcony.  That is another house on the left and the church on the right.

 Just a common site everywhere we went.  It's a little blurry because I took it while we were driving down the road.

 Some of the kids receiving their Christmas gifts from donations that were shared.

 I wasn't so sure about the hats as it's not really that cold there, but I saw several of them wearing them even a couple of weeks later!  Thanks!

 Just hanging out on the front porch.  The light blue in the background is the children's shelter and the dark blue (barely noticeable on the far right) is the front of the Cajigas home where we were standing.

 This is one of the first friends I made way back in 2004!  She is now married and just had her baby the week before I arrived.  I am now a ninang (godmother) to this precious little one.

 One night Jonah just wanted to celebrate and so took many of us out to dinner at an outdoor place.  The locals call it 'Sky's the Limit,' because with out a roof you are dining under the stars.

 It is really where the buses park during the day.  But at night vendors come along and barbecue and grill all kinds of meat and serve soup.  You can bring your own rice or they have it available to purchase.

 Mark just being curious.  This was our tourist day :)  A couple of times we thought he might just jump right out!

 This was the team of youth who did the worship conference.  As a treat before the other conference we spent a day at this place enjoying the hot springs and swimming.

 Most of the kids tried to pretend they were shy and would hide their faces when they saw a camera.  Here James is cleaning wood for cooking.

 Faith getting ready to ligo (bath) at the water pump.  Laundry was also done at this pump.

 This is the remodeled orphanage.  I don't know how much came down from what I helped build in 2004, but they definitely reinforced the main floor with brick all the way up and added a second floor.

 Jonah's dad build a new bookshelf because we donated so many books!  Jess was already hoping one would happen, but I think our donations made it happen :)  Now there is a dedicated kids book shelf!

 Some of the men hanging out after church on a Sunday.  I think they might have been discussing something particular, but I don't remember why it was only guys.

 For those of you who might know... this is Alfredo.  He was the oldest of the first group of siblings to live at the orphanage after we built it in 2004.  He is now married and has kids of his own!

 The fearless Cajigas family!  They were such gracious hosts. :)

 I think I already posted this, but just in case.  This is the house parents and the children living at the shelter (two of them belong to the house parents).

The fearless Dupalco family!  I wish I had more time with them while I was there, but there is always next time :)

Finally!

I have been back in Arizona for 3 weeks now.  I am finally starting to feel a little like normal.  I still struggle to get up and start my day because no on is around all day long to motivate me into getting up, but I think I am finally jet lag free.  I have been struggling to keep up with my current class, but this past week was a "break" so we didn't have anything due.  That gave me the opportunity to get a little caught up in other areas.

Today I am going to the post office to mail 20 envelopes with pictures and cards.  I wish I had enough energy to do more, but over the course of the next couple of months I am hoping to design a newsletter and start sending them quarterly.  If you would like to receive these, please let me know.  I already have a list that I will send my initial newsletters to, but I would love to add more!

I'd like to share a little more about the second half of my visit so here it goes.  The last update ended with us having returned to Bohol after an extended stay on neighboring island Negros.  We had arrived back to Juagdan very early in the morning on Friday (3:00 am).  Thankfully I didn't have any particular thing to do that day so I was able to sleep in a bit and got a decent 6 hours of sleep.  Some of the others on the other hand had to host a Christmas party for the local young people, they had a rough day.  Then Saturday there was a mix of parties and gatherings that happened at the church and it ended with a great fireworks presentation to bring in the New Year!  In the Philippines it is legal to set off the big shooting fireworks and at least 2 sets of them were purchased and a lot of people gathered to watch them.

The last three weeks sort of blend together because there were no specific events aside from my last three days.  Life just went on as usual.  There were two typhoons that caused a lot of rain and wind and school was off for a couple of days.  I did my laundry and often watched Mama Bebee cooking to see if I could figure it out.  The two guys who work the water business live in the house and so they each took a turn cooking.  Ogeke is still learning, so he didn't do much, but it was good.  Junrey can cook for me anytime because he makes great seafood!

I was able to meet with Mama Anging and talk about a lot of the plans.  She really likes where I am heading for the program and had a few suggestions to add.  They would like me to get involved with the young people's group as this covers from teenagers until you get married (and I'm not married).  They would also like me to preach occasionally.  On the first point I wholeheartedly agree.  I will get involved in the young peoples group because they will likely be my students and friends :)  On the second point I told her that is not how it works for Americans so it will take me a while to get used to the idea of preaching.  I told her I would need at least 6 months, maybe a year, before I would feel comfortable preaching, but I would work on it since that is how it works in the Philippines.

After proposing my ideas and getting questions answered with Mama Anging, she wanted me to meet  with the church leaders and tell them about it.  She said she shared some of the idea, but wanted me to tell them in my words and see if they had any questions.  I was a little nervous, because I only knew about half of the people.  But I knew most of them understand a fair amount of English so that was easier.  When I asked if there were any questions Kuya Romeo said, "No, it's clear."  They did end up asking a few questions and really seemed to like the idea and are anxious to get it started.  Their prayer is that I can come sooner, but I told them the soonest would be 1 year (Jan/Feb 2018).

I did a lot of observation of people and how things work for day to day life and feel pretty ready to make this work.  I also took note of prices on certain things when at the markets and shops to know what a budget will likely be.  I am nervous about the initial start up cost, and even a bit about the necessary monthly pledges.  However, I know it is all in God's timing and he will make happen what needs to happen.

My last three days were very eventful, but as this is already long I will wait and post that another time with a lot of pictures.  I'm still sorting through and making a detailed slide show.  Perhaps in another three weeks I will have that done and post it!

Thank you for your support!

Jet Lag

I know some of you are just dying to hear about how things went.  I have so much to share, but this jet lag thing is really getting to me!

My last two days I must have eaten something that my system didn't like because I was in CR constantly... then travelling.. then the transition to American food made me spend a lot of time in the bathroom again.  That is exhausting, but add jet lag on to it!  It has been exactly a week and I'm still fighting with my brain at 3 am.  At least I am able to get up by about 10 am, so I'm getting closer.

The biggest this is that my trip was all I expected and much more.  I was able to accomplish what I set out to do and came home with an official letter of invitation from the church.  They would love to have me come sooner, but I told them I have to finish my schooling and raise the money so the soonest would be January 2018.  The actual date is in God's hands as certain things must happen before I can even think about that specific of a plan.

I had to start my next class the last week in Juagdan and right now I am not feeling motivated to do the work.  It is keeping me from things like updating my blog, filling out my missions application, finding a job, searching for curriculum resources, and starting on learning the Visayan grammar.  All of these things will come with time.  Right now I need to focus on school and readjusting to life in the US.

I miss my friends dearly.  I love my parents, but living in a place where they are the only people I know can be difficult.  At the moment I am glad to be living with them and it feels like home, but I miss both of my other homes.  I love that fact that I have family in so many places across the globe, but it makes it impossible to live anywhere without missing someone.

 This is the family living at the children's shelter and most of the kids under their care.

 This is the family that will host me when I return for the long term.

This is the missionary family I stayed with that support the children's shelter.

This is the Davenport Clan from when we gathered at Thanksgiving :)

This is just a small part of my Michigan family and support system!

Happy Christmas!

Hello all!

Things are going well here.  The day to day stuff takes a while to learn...laundry is done by hand and although they want to spoil me and do it, I need to learn.  The hard part for me is they don't really use toilet paper or tissues. There is a faucet with running water and a dipper bucket at most places so if it's just pee I'm good, but we try to carry baby wipes and alcohol cleanser everywhere.  Showers are cold water dumped over you (or occasionally a shower head) which actually feels pretty amazing most of the time.  If there isn't a shower head it takes forever to just get my hair wet through to get started! Thankfully Jonah got spoiled living in the States so here at the house there is a shower head and usually TP.

The food is pretty good.  Every meal has rice...breakfast isn't usually any different from the others.  The first few days it was lots of fried pork and that cleaned me out to put it politely. When they realized I like vegetables and am willing to eat just about anything that changed.  Most meals consist of some kind of soup.  The liquid is spooned over the rice and is quite delicious with a variety of flavors.  Jess doesn't eat much fish so I'm saved there!

Life is Juagdan is so much simpler than back in the States.  I think some of it has to do with the fact that I don't understand all that goes on yet.  The house and the orphanage are right next to each other in what Jess usually refers to as 'The Compound' because the church is also here as well as the two businesses that support their ministry (laying chickens and purified water).  Pastor Iggle and Pastora Melina also have a house in the compound.  It is always busy around here and that is something I have to get used to as I have not been surrounded by people in a long time.  That and my introverted self needs some space at times.

The kids were a bit shy at first, but have warmed up to me. It seems amazing how quickly time flies and that I have been here for more than 3 weeks already!  I'm getting a fairly good idea about how the regular routine works, but things could even change by the time I come back in a year.  I do know that this has been a good opportunity to meet people and get reacquainted from the 6 year gap since my last visit.  I am hopeful it will not take too long to raise the financial support necessary to get started on my way back to this beautiful country.

Just as I was starting to get used to Juagdan and the people around we headed out for 9 days!  Jonah helps leading the young people from the church and they have some great outreach activities. This particular trip was a two fold experience and that is why it was so long.  Traveling here takes a lot of time.  You drive to a port, see if you can get the ferry to the next island and if not drive another hour to the next port.  To go to the first event we drove about 2 1/2 hours pre-dawn to a particular port, then caught a 2 hour ferry ride to Cebu, then drove another 2ish hours, found out the boat we wanted was full but thankfully they had another in a couple of hours, that was just a short 45 minute ride, and finally about a 3 hour drive through the mountains of Negros Occidental.  We spent 4 days in a very, very rural community where the young people lead a worship conference for a church in San Agustin on the Northern end of the island.  We celebrated their church thanksgiving on Christmas day with them.  It was quite the feast and activities, but no ham and pumpkin pie!

After this we picked up 6 additional passengers from their church to go to the next event.  That meant we had 19 people in all as well as luggage in a Chevy Colorado.  You can't do that in the States!  Thankfully it was only about a 3 1/2 hour drive to Dawis, Negros Oriental on the south side of the island.  Here is was sort of like a cross between the CRC's youth convention and a classis meeting.  The pastor from Juagdan met us there and lead the last session while our young people lead worship.  Despite not understanding most of what was said or sung I could feel the presence of God and young lives being touched.  Pastor Iggle is a very passionate man and isn't afraid to show it!  We left there yesterday morning only 14 passengers strong this time!  We were inland enough we had a minimum of 2 hours to the first port and thankfully they had boats leaving every half hour because it is a short distance to Cebu from that port.  We only waited about 20 minutes and it was maybe a 20 minute ride.  We stopped for breakfast and then headed out to get to Cebu City to extend my visa which would have been about a 3 1/2 hour ride.  Jonah realized it was a national holiday the next day and we have time to renew my visa, so we were just going to find the closest port to take us to Bohol just to make sure we could get there.  Turns out three ports didn't have openings so we ended up in Cebu City anyway.  We stopped at the very Western mall for lunch and the rest of the group shopped while Jonah and I found the immigration office just to find out they had closed just an hour before due to the holiday weekend...Good thing I have until the 7th because they won't even open again until the 3rd!  Due to the extra load for the holidays we weren't able to get a ferry until 9pm, thankfully it was the closest port to Juagdan though.  We finally arrived home at 3 am, nearly 24 hours after our departure from Dawis!

Now we are settling back in to the regular routine, but the local church is having their holiday parties today and tomorrow.  Considering the late start to my day (9:00am) I feel very accomplished.  I bathed, unpacked, cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned out the truck, and washed equivalent to two loads of laundry... all by 1:00.   Now I've been resting and writing this update.

To review a bit about the English program... We have had a few miscommunications, but are working on it.  I've heard from a fair number of church members and know I have a lot of ahead of me.  There is already a lot of interest even though they know it will be at least a year if not more before the program even starts.  I have also gotten a lot of great questions about how things will work for timing and covering all levels.  It excited me that at least some people here understand the difficult task I have ahead!  Pastora Melina (aka Mama Anging) has been very busy at their store because her boys have been called away to their other jobs so we haven't worked out details yet, but she promised me some time when we came back from Negros.  I already have a list of questions for her and hope to get a letter of invitation by the time I leave.  I already have pages and pages of notes for planning, I just want to work out details with Mama before I get started.

My biggest prayer requests are for good health to return and time to meet with Mama Anging.  While traveling several of us caught some kind of cough and runny nose...hence my struggle with the lack of tissues.  I'm on the mend and have finally found the appropriate relief meds as well as a more relaxed schedule.  At least 2 of the kids are still sick as well as 2 or 3 of the young people and they have to get back to working after 9 days away.  Hopefully by Monday Ken will be feeling better and can watch the store while Pastora and I talk.

I hope Christmas was wonderfully spent praising God for sending his son because without Christmas we don't have Easter!  May God bless you all in the new year to come and I will talk to you in 2017!

(Pictures to come sometime in January, hopefully ☺)

T-minus 2 days...

It is amazing how quickly time flies by.  It feels like it was just last week that I was leaving GR and still had 50 days to wait until embarking on the next leg of my Filipino journey.

Tonight as I write this I have made a packing list, checked it numerous times, packed my bags, and weighed them.  I am leaving town in 36 hours!

Two checked bags... heavy, but well underweight.
One carry on... contains clean clothes 😉
One personal item... things to do and eat!

The most amazing thing about this journey is how much peace and calm I have experienced around it.  Sure there have been a few fleeting moment of questioning.... What in the world have I gotten into?  Will this really work?  Am I really following the right path?... Every time it is just a moment or at most a few minutes and then I am calm again.  Even now, with just 36 hours to go I am just plugging away at daily life.

I think it has helped that I have had the task of working on my master's class and a week of vacation!  My class is going well and I really only have one major assignment to finish.  I am hopeful a large chunk of it will be completed tomorrow, but I have until December 19th so even with that I am fairly well relaxed.  Really I just have two write out 5 lesson plans... I've done hundreds of those by now 😉  The week of Thanksgiving my parents and I were able to take the time to drive to Colorado and stay with my brother and his family.  What an adventure that was with nine people living under the same roof for a week.

Grand baby number four was born in October so she isn't even 2 months old yet!

In these last hours I am extremely thankful for some last minute donations.  Due to the generosity of a few supporters in the past two weeks I am only about $250 short of what I was hoping to cover in support for this trip.  Just so you know, that means $700 in cash donations and possibly as much as an additional $1000 worth of supplies have been donated in support of The House of Hope Philippines and preparation for the English language program.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I don't know if I ever shared this, but the donations filled two of the large shipping boxes. 😍  It can take from 2-3 months for the packages to arrive and considering their immense size and weight it is wonderful that they are delivered right to the Cajigas' door.  Jessica informed me that the first box reached them on November 30.  They were so grateful and overwhelmed at the blessings showered on them.  I am hopeful the second box will arrive the week of Christmas, but even if it doesn't, joy and excitement will be heard and seen when its contents are shared.

I am excited that the next time you hear from me I will be on the ground in the Philippines!  I appreciate your prayers and financial support in this endeavor and appreciate continued support.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

*Visa, I'm still a little nervous about this because I am cutting it close on the dates but I have been assured it shouldn't be a problem

*School, I am finishing one class as I travel to the Philippines and we have a holiday break, but I will have another starting just before I return

*Travel, I have a 17 hour layover in Tokyo and it makes me nervous I'll fall asleep and miss my flight

*Cajigas Family, they have a lot of projects going and could always use additional prayer!

*Melina, she is the outreach pastor I will be working with and we need to have clear communication

*Language Program, a large part of this trip is to work out what kind of program I will create

*Future Budget, a second major part of this trip is to work toward a comprehensive budget for myself and the future ministry

*Application, I have put the application on hold to get more answers from this visit, but it is an intense process which includes a letter of invitation, some essays, and mission references.  If this initial phase is accepted then interviews and training will follow sometime last winter or early spring.